Bomb Delivery

And so, we decided Miitei-chan (Clone) would solo suicide-charge the boss.

Hang in there as long as you can and grab us tons of intel!

"Miitei-chan. How's it looking in there?"

"Ah, some kinda red-black biggish thing came ouuut～"

Miitei-chan (main body) was sharing vision with her Clone.

Alright, let's work out our boss strategy while we listen to her play-by-play.

"It flung some goopy red stuff at meee. I'm gonna bail up to the ceiling, 'kay?"

"So it chucks magma. Hmm, that's something to watch out for."

"Huh?"

"Hm?"

"Looks like its attacks can't reach the ceiling. It tried tossing stuff up, but it's just hitting itself, ahaha."

Safe zone acquired.

"… Hey Miitei-chan. Can Clones use items handed off to the main body?"

"If we're close, yuup. About this far is fine～"

I see, I see.

"Penpen, didn't you say earlier you had countermeasure attack items prepped?"

"Sure did. Oh, it's an Elementarion though, so stuff we made ourselves'll work on it, right?"

Right. Penpen's bombs had worked on the Great Turtle, after all.

Welp, let's go for it! Bombardment from the safe zone!

"Miitei-chan… you're cleared to go!"

"Yaay! Cooling bomb, droppiiing!"

Huh. Cooling bombs, so that's a thing too. Sounds effective.

Hm? What, wasn't I supposed to be prepping too? I was prepping, though. My job was lugging around the stuff Miitei-chan made. … Delivery drivers don't peek inside the packages, right?

And then, from beyond the door, several explosions echoed out.

"Huh."

"Hm? What?"

"Looks like I got it?"

Wait, seriously?

Just as I thought that, the boss room door creaked open. … Hmm, automatic doors.

Peering into the now-open boss room, I saw a black lump about the size of a Baby Turtle rolling around on the floor.

"Ehhh. Seriously, yo? Talk about an anticlimax, yo. Way too weak, yo."

"Wha, what… !? To actually defeat it…!?"

… Ah. I see.

"Oh, this black thing looks like it'll make great materials."

"Elementarion, huh, but this one was only Baby Turtle level. Total pushover."

"Come to think of it, Baby Turtles were Elementarions too, weren't they, yo… Oh, aren't they NPCs' natural enemies, yo?"

A total anticlimax, but the whole point of an Elementarion is that NPCs can't beat them.

Which means, for everyone other than us, this boss really was unbeatable.

"… So the dungeon's true boss might be at Great Turtle level, yo?"

"Yeah, maybe. Well, Baby Turtle's enough for this run, right? Long as that's fine for the quest."

"A complete dungeon clear isn't the goal. I simply need access to the facility that can adjust skills. Once we break through here, we should be able to reach it."

Huh…

… Wait.

"Prince. Okay, sure, the boss info itself you could gather by jamming a doorstop at the entrance and hauling the intel back. But how'd anyone get information on a place you can't reach without beating an Elementarion boss? I sense a mystery! We've stumbled onto something strange here!"

"They're the memoirs of a past Spirit-Possessed, though?"

"Ugh, there's no mystery at all."

Right, we weren't the only Spirit-Possessed out there.

If anything, I seem to recall there being a setting where tons of them existed in the ancient civilization.

 

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The moment we stepped into the boss room, no trap triggered, no warp to some hidden area sprang on us. We simply passed through and arrived at our target area.

A complete shift from the cave-and-stone construction up to this point: a modern, sci-fi-styled corridor. Sliding doors.

There was even one of those conveyor-belt handrails you'd see on a spaceship. Does this thing work…? Oh, it moved! Nice!

"Tria-dono, touching things carelessly may spring a trap."

"Oop, sorry, sorry. Got a little too hyped there."

The prince checked his memoirs and searched for the target room.

"Whoa? Hey, this is what you'd call ancient ruins, isn't it, yo!? Actually, come to think of it, the prince straight-up said 'ancient ruins' earlier too, yo!?"

"Oh, then maybe the cartridges Alto-shi's been looking for are in here too?"

"Prince, Prince! Can I go explore, yo!?"

"… After I've achieved my objective, so long as safety is secured and the preservation of the site is kept in mind, I don't mind."

"Okay, gotta hold back for now, yo. But I'm definitely exploring later, yo!"

With plans for later shaping up, the prince and the rest of us eventually arrived at the target room.